Scalise: Impeachment is Not Designed to be Check on Electorate

WASHINGTON, D.C.—House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined NBC’s Meet the Press as Democrats march towards impeachment in yet another attempt to reverse the results of the 2016 election. Whip Scalise outlined the long history of Democrats’ false, sensational accusations against President Trump, noting their latest claims of a quid pro quo taking place in the President’s call with the Ukrainian President were also proven false with the release of the call transcript. Whip Scalise also pointed out that after the Obama Administration’s policy of appeasement towards Russia, President Trump is the only one who has attempted to stop Russia’s interference in our elections and provide serious aid to Ukraine.

On President Trump standing up to Russia unlike the Obama Administration:

“There’s still a lot of information we’re trying to find out about how the Russians interfered with our election when Barack Obama was President, and I’m glad President Trump continues to look into that interference so it doesn’t happen again. He’s the one trying to root it out. By the way, President Trump is the one who’s been standing up to Russia. They talked about Javelin missiles in that call. President Trump sold Javelin missiles to knock those tanks out that Russia was sending into the Ukraine. Obama wouldn’t sell those Javelin missiles. You might want to ask President Obama or Joe Biden why they wouldn’t sell the Javelins so that Ukraine could stop Russia from coming in with those tanks but President Trump did and continues to provide relief. We’ve given a lot of relief. In fact, President Trump has probably given more help to Ukraine than any other President.”

On Democrats’ history of false accusations and impeachment at-all-costs strategy:

“Keep in mind, the Chairman said a lot of things, made a lot of baseless accusations. Chairman Schiff is the one who for two years was running around saying he had more than circumstantial evidence that President Trump colluded with Russia on the Mueller investigation. And that turned out not to be true. And so instead of saying, ‘okay, we were wrong, let’s move on,’ they continue to go down this road of impeachment regardless of the facts. You know, they have said that there were high crimes and misdemeanors. The actual author of the Articles of Impeachment, [Al Green], just recently a few days ago said that if they don’t impeach President Trump, he might get re-elected. He will get re-elected is what he said. The Framers did not put the power of impeachment in the Constitution so that you could stop somebody from getting elected who was duly elected in 2016. It’s a high crime and misdemeanor standard and they should take that with the respect that it deserves in the House.”

On the need to focus on solving real problems facing American families:

“Well, [Democrats] have been investigating President Trump for over two years and the entire [time] making baseless allegations. Speaker Pelosi, the day before the transcript came out, was saying that [it] was going to show that the President broke the law, and then they didn’t have any quid pro quo. All of the things that they were saying. They’re investigating everything, and instead of, by the way, we should be moving USMCA to get a better trade deal. We should be passing bipartisan legislation to lower drug prices. They won’t bring those bills to the House Floor because all they’re focused on is impeachment.”

On Democrats’ unprecedented refusal to formally vote on an impeachment inquiry on the House Floor:

“It sounds like you’re reading a lot of these Democrat talking points. The people that have been saying for years that the President was involved in all of these other things, and then none of it turned out to be true. The Mueller investigation was their ticket to impeachment. Shouldn’t, by the way, Chuck, shouldn’t they first have voted to start an impeachment inquiry, which has always happened? This is only three times in the history of our country that Congress has moved Articles of Impeachment. They wouldn’t even do that. It’s like they’re trying to shield their members from voting on this while they continue to go down the drum beat of impeachment because as the author of impeachment articles, [Al Green], said, he’s concerned the President will get re-elected. That’s not why you impeach a President.”